Drowning On Dry Land
by happyalvin
Summary: Draco Malfoy and Odette Huntington were as different as could be, one was a newly recruited Death Eater with an important mission and the other was a simple witch who loved nothing more than a good book and the occasional wise crack. They had nothing in common but yet they find themselves in the most dangerous position of all during the second wizarding war. Falling in love.
1. Chapter 1

Draco Malfoy slowly walked down the vastly empty carriage of the Hogwarts Express, hopefully if this year went according to plan this would be his last ever year at Hogwarts. The school's standards had significantly dropped in the last few years to a disgustingly low point in Draco's opinion due to the fumbling old coot Dumbledore and his bloody pet Saint Potter. The two of them were insufferable morons but if he succeeded with the mission the Dark Lord gave them then Dumbledore would be out of the way and pretty soon Potter too. With the two of them gone the wizarding world would be a much better place and then it would only be a matter of time before the filthy mudbloods were gone. Something that Draco was very much looking forward too although he had to focus on the task at hand, his Aunt Bellatrix had repeatedly stressed the importance of the task given to him and how it was such a high honour to receive from the Dark Lord. Draco knew that it was, he also knew that this particular task had been given to him because of his father's recent failings in regards to the prophecy that was in the Department of Mysteries, which made Draco more determined then ever to succeed in order to restore his family's reputation.

Coming to a stop in one of the carriages Draco decided that it was best he probably rejoined the rest of his fellow Slytherins, he had been wondering around for far too long and knowing his luck he'd probably run into either Potter, Granger, Weaselbee or worse all three of them. After what happened with them and his father a few months ago, he wanted as little to do with as possible, although the likeliness of that happening was next to nothing as all three of them were irritatingly annoying and tended to stick their noses in where they didn't belong. Standing in the carriage Draco was annoyed when some girl clearly not looking where she was going walked into him. "Watch where you're going you idiot!"

"I wouldn't have to watch where I was going if you weren't aimlessly standing in the middle of the carriage looking completely clueless as to where you were Draco Malfoy." The girl quipped as she bent down to pick up her book that Draco didn't recognize in the slightest, both her and the book. "I'll give you a clue though we're on the Hogwarts Express heading to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, which is located in Scotland."

Draco allowed himself to frown, firstly he didn't except her to be so condescending with him given who he was and second she clearly knew who he was but he was having the hardest time placing her. She seem vaguely familiar with her dark hair, pale complication, blue eyes and pink lips that were curved into a small smirk. It actually irritated Draco that he couldn't place her, it was obvious that she was a student given that she was on the train. He had a feeling he knew her but he knew a lot of people and even then he only took a particular intrest in a certain few and they were mainly Slytherins and he could just tell that this girl was not from his house otherwise he would have remembered. "And just who are you?"

"You don't know me by my first name Draco, you know me by another name." The girl replied which just caused Draco to become further intrigued yet annoyed, primarily he was addressed by his last name and not many people addressed him by his first name here and yet this girl seemed at ease calling him Draco and showing an utter lack of respect towards him. Just who the hell was she? But he never got a chance to ask as without saying another word she walked off to talk to a passing Ravenclaw leaving Draco standing in the same place he had been standing when she bumped into him.

"There you are Malfoy, Pansy sent me to find you as she's convinced that you can't be left alone at the moment because of your important mission." Zabini said as he walked up the carriage towards Draco who couldn't help but frown at the mention of Pansy's name. Pansy. Draco resisted the urge to throw up, over the years Pansy had become increasingly clingy and more annoying even more so when she learned of the new position he had taken up over summer.

"Zabini, whose that girl talking to that unfortunate looking Ravenclaw prefect." Draco asked in a nonchalant manner, he didn't want to seem like he was interested in her because he wasn't. He just wanted to know who she was and how she could possible know him.

"That's Odette Huntington."

"Who?" Draco questioned as the name didn't ring a bell in the slightest before thinking what kind of a name was Odette Huntington. But the way that Zabini had said her name it sounded like he was supposed to know that name, as if held some kind of significant meaning.

Zabini rolled his eyes in amusement much to Draco's surprise as he was one for showing little emotion, especially humour. "Ravenclaw, she's been in most of our classes for the last five years and you've been calling her 'The Ugly Duckling' ever since the first time you laid eyes on her back in first year. I'm surprised you'd forget that so easily as you too particular pride in that particular name.

"That's the ugly duckling? Never crossed my mind that she had an actual name…" Draco said as recognition finally hit, he knew that he knew her but never would he have realized that the girl he had been talking to was the ugly duckling. The average sized, shy and retiring Ravenclaw who was even more awkward then that idiot Neville Longbottom, if that was even possible. Apart from the occasional name calling Draco hadn't found any reason to pay much attention to her as she had been a rather plain girl although he was surprised at the noticeable changes that had happened over the summer. She was a far cry from an ugly duckling.

"Certainly not an ugly duckling anymore, even for a Ravenclaw." Zabini noted and Draco couldn't help but agree. The ugly duckling was no longer the ugly duck, she was in fact the far opposite of that and dare Draco admit, rather interesting in more ways than one.


	2. Chapter 2

The coldness of the floor of the second landing of the clock tower did nothing to deter Odette from where she sat reading. This was one of the few places in the castle where she should read in peace and quiet as the castle was always bustling with students and as such there weren't many places where a person could get privacy. The quietness and isolation was something that Odette had welcomed as over the past week since term had started Odette had constantly been surrounded by friends and the noise that came with them as they all settled back to being at school again. As much as Odette adored her friends and had missed then over the summer, there was just sometimes that she needed to be by herself for a while and the clock tower provided that escape. Being by herself was something that Odette was very much used to as her parents, as nice as they were spent more time working than they did with their daughter. So loneliness was something that Odette was very much used to, in fact Odette was used to being by herself that a lot of the time she welcomed it like it was an old friend. Loneliness seemed to suit Odette as she was a naturally quiet person, she wasn't very outspoken and one of those people who felt the need to always talk. Odette was more reserved when surrounded by other people. Alone and content being by herself Odette had been reading for the better part of forty minutes. But now she was was looking out to the courtyard below her, watching as everyone went about their business. It was nice being back at the castle, Odette had enjoyed being at home for the last few moths and spending time with her parents, the rare moments that they had time to spend with her. But Odette preferred being back at Hogwarts, to be with her friends and able to use her magic so freely without worrying about getting in trouble for underage magic. Most importantly Odette appreciated being able to be her own person instead of the daughter of Magnus and Everly Huntington. Odette's parents held quite important positions in the department of magical law enforcement as advocates to the wizarding world. Because of that Odette tended to be overlooked and overshadowed by her parents achievements as if she was invisible. But here at Hogwarts? Odette was less invisible than she was at home so any acknowledgment was very much welcomed.

"Well if it isn't the Ugly Duckling."

All Odette ever wanted was a bit of acknowledgement and now she was getting it. However it was coming from the last person that she had previously ever wanted it from. Draco Malfoy. Odette didn't even have to look to know that it was him as the all familiar obnoxious and over confident cocky voice was enough for Odette to know that it was the self confessed Prince of Slytherin who was addressing her. Clearly Draco had finally remembered the dreadful nickname that he had inflicted on her since first year since their encounter on the Hogwarts Express last week. Odette had to admit that she had been rather indifferent and a tad bit condescending with him but given that this was Draco Malfoy, she had not wasted to much time worrying about it. After all the boy in question didn't even know her name and probably didn't even after all these years, instead he just went about calling her a rather insulting nickname. The same nickname that Odette now found herself smiling at. It had taken a week for Draco to recall his ugly duckling nickname for her before approaching Odette to call her it. Odette wasn't sure whether to be flattered or insulted. "I see you remember..."

"You thought I forgot." Draco replied in somewhat feigned disbelief. Clearly he wanted Odette to think that she was of little importance to him and he needn't bother. Odette already knew that as in the years they had been at Hogwarts they barely even spoke despite being in a lot of the same classes.

"Perhaps, given that you have so many nicknames for so many different people. It must be awfully hard trying to remember them all." Odette sarcastically said with a wearily laugh before turning around to face Draco. He was standing about a meter or so away from Odette and looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He had been doing that a lot recently, staring at Odette that is. Draco had been staring at her when he thought that she didn't notice but Odette did, however she had to admit he was very careful and only did when no one else was look. Odette was far from stupid, she knew Draco was looking at her. No doubt surprised about the way she had spoke to him. It was a first for Odette too as normally she didn't speak to a lot of people like that, let alone someone like Draco Malfoy. But things had been changing for Odette over the last few months.

"Everytime I see you your always alone, maybe I should start calling something like the little lost and lonely duckling without a clue or any friends."

"Could say the same for you, every time I run into you Draco you too see to be by yourself. It seems that you're just as alone as I am, you might want to think about that." Odette retorted as she was quite surprised that Draco was here alone and not surrounded by his usual gaggle of friends. They were normally attached to Draco like they were his shadow. Odette noted that Draco seemed surprise by her quick witted response and dare she believe that she saw Draco smirk at something she said. "Must be interesting for you to realise that I'm not the shrinking violet I make myself out to be."

"Something like that... You have some real nerve calling me by my first name duckling." Draco slowly said and now it was time for Odette to smirk. Whilst she didn't know Draco, she knew that most people tended to refer to him by his last name. Clearly her calling him by his first name was something that he wasn't used to, especially by someone he called names. It was kind if ironic in a small way.

"Well it is your name after all and besides one of us should be using proper decorum and etiquette. If you insist on calling me duckling than I'll keep calling you by your first name."

"Are you sure your in Ravenclaw? Because that self righteous and arrogant attitude seems to suggest that your in Gryffindor." Draco questioned on a dry tone of voice and Odette could have sworn she could have heard utter contempt in Draco's voice when he had mentioned Gryffindor. It was common knowledge to everyone in the castle that Slytherin and Gryffindor shared more than a house rivalry. The two houses hated each other and had done for centuries.

"Oh I'm quite sure." Odette replied with a small chuckle as she turned her attention back over to the courtyard. It was such a beautiful day and Odette knew she probably should be spending it outside. But she was hiding away in the clock tower and having a conversation with Draco Malfoy of all people. It was very bizarre yet interesting at the same time.

"Just who are you?" Draco asked and the question seemed genuine, honest and most importantly like he was actually interested. Odette found herself turning back to look at Draco. It was such an odd question for him to ask her that Odette stood up from where she was sitting and walked over to where Draco was standing. To her surprise he didn't move or even demand that she stay at least two feet away from him because of his superiority of some nonsense along those lines. Instead Draco just looked straight back at her. Odette forced a smile on her face as she looked at Draco for one last time, he was handsome enough with his white blonde hair, tall slender body and grey eyes that seemed so cold and lacking emotion that Odette seemed unable to tear her eyes away from his. But eventually she did. As boys like Draco Malfoy didn't care about who girls like Odette Huntington were, she was just the ugly duckling. He was asking her all these questions and yet he didn't even know her name.

"I'm the ugly duckling of course."


	3. Chapter 3

Draco had a problem. An unforeseen problem that had unexpectedly popped up out of nowhere and that problem was the ugly duckling. Or Odette Huntington as it turns out the ducklings name was, who wasn't such an ugly duckling anymore, in fact she was from that. Somehow over the summer she had gone from being an ugly duckling into a beautiful creature with quite a mouth on her and the duckling seemed unafraid of him and had no problem addressing him on a first name basis. Constantly challenging him and hardly batting an eyelid when he kept calling her duckling, in fact she seemed to encourage him to keep calling her that. The girl was strange, there was no question about that but Draco couldn't help but be intrigued by her, as Odette Huntington was different than most people. She was smart but unlike that know it all mudblood Granger, the duckling made no attempt to show off her intelligent unless she was called up on in class. Each time she had answered every question correctly despite looking like she wasn't paying attention in the slightest. There was something about the not so quite ugly duckling that piped Draco's interest and he couldn't help but be fascinated by her as she wasn't like most of people here at Hogwarts. Draco barely knew the girl but there was the way she walked with such elegance and grace, if anyone else walked around with the air of confidence that the duckling carried herself with Draco would have been the first to call the duckling arrogant. Which she was but in a bemusing kind of way when she didn't have her head stuck in some kind of book, But what really got Draco who the smallest of smirks that the duckling had in the corner of her mouth. Like she knew something that nobody else did.

It irritated Draco more than he liked to admit as he had bigger problems on his hand and the last thing he needed was to be distracted by some girl when he had an important task on his hand. If he didn't complete the task given to him by the dark lord then his family would pay the price after what happened in the department of mysteries and Draco was not going to let that happen. He would not fail, he would succeed and restore his family's name to the righteousness and prestige in which is belonged to. No girl was going to get in the way of that especially the duckling. As Draco idly walked round the castle pondering several ways he had already planned on getting rid of Dumbledore when he came across the last person he wanted to see. The duckling. She was standing on the viaduct, alone yet again as he commonly found her. Draco knew that he should stay away from her, not let the duckling distract him from what he needed to do but yet he found herself walking towards her.

"Duckling." Draco began and he watched as Odette didn't move in the slightest to acknowledge him in the slightest but there in the corner of her mouth was a small smile. It was part of a smile that made him feel rather uncomfortable as he had never a girl smile at him in a such a genuine way. Well there was Pansy but when Pansy gave him one of her weird smiles, it made Draco's stomach lurch. When Odette smiled at him, it was the opposite feeling her got from when Pansy smiled at him.

"Careful Draco, if we keep meeting like this then I might start to get the wrong idea." Odette replied, once again calling Draco by his first name like it was the most natural thing to do despite the fact he himself didn't call her by her fist name. He had taken to calling her duckling as the ugly part was kind of redundant now.

"You never answered my question." Draco stated getting straight to the point instead of exchanging the usual small talk that he had had with the duckling. He knew part of why he was intrigued with the duckling was the mystery that she surround herself with and if he got to the bottom of how she really was, then he would no longer find himself curious about her and could focus better on the task assigned to him by the dark lord.

"You're going to have to refresh my memory Mr. Malfoy." Odette said and Draco couldn't help but frown, the duckling's lack of cooperation and enjoyment over this wasn't helping in the slightest. Draco wasn't used to this. He was normally the one who was on the other side of this but now he was the one being teased. The ugly duckling was teasing him. Draco Malfoy. Draco was finding this difficult to swallow as the former ugly duckling who used to do nothing when he insulted her for five years had now turning the table on him. But there was no malice and contempt in her voice, not even any sarcasm. The only thing there was an amused smile.

"I asked you who you were and you just said the ugly duckling."

"Well I didn't lie did I? That's all I am to you, right? Just the ugly duckling." Odette questioned with a small shrug of her shoulders. Go ahead and ask, I know you want to ask me how I went from being the ugly duckling to transforming into a beautiful swan. I figure it's why you've been staring at me so much recently as you've no doubt been wondering how I've changed in the space of a few months. It's kind of ironic really as my name, and I mean my actual name of Odette is the name of a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer in a ballet that was composed in the 19th century. Then your nickname for me comes from a story in which a ugly duckling suffers abuse until it matures into a beautiful swan."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco asked in accusing manner as he didn't like where the duckling was going with this.

"I don't know, I guess it depends on how you chose to interrupt my question and to answer the question that I'm assuming you have too much pride to ask. I finally grew into myself over the summer, I had been stuck in that awkward phase for a while and now I'm over it. Amazing of what a summer of growth spurts, self reflection and acceptance can do to a person." Odette explained in a quiet manner.

"No longer the ugly duckling then." Draco noted as she stood in front of Odette and looked into her blue eyes, they were so clear and bright. Seemingly innocent from the truth that was outside of these castle wells. But from just looking at her and the few conversations that the two of them had, Draco knew that she wasn't some naïve doe eyed girl who knew absolutely nothing about what as going on in their world. This was a girl who was seemingly unafraid to talk back to him and Draco there was no way that Odette wasn't unaware of his reputation.

"Metaphorically yes." Odette replied in a weary tone as she took a step back and Draco could see her looking at him in a way that suggested to him that she was trying to figure him out as if he was some kind of power. "If beauty on the outside is the only thing that matters than you then I suggest that you look beneath the surface something to see what's underneath."

"Is that what your doing? Is that why you keep doing this with me?" Draco demanded.

"I think you'll find that you're the one who keeps approaching me and starting our conversation but just so you know, there's no need to worry I don't bite. Unlike you. The self proclaimed Prince of Slytherin who doesn't look at girls like me, the ones you call the ugly duckling until they become beautiful swans. You may have said that I'm not the ugly duckling anymore but that's only on the outside and I am not as fickle as you seem to be."

Draco knew that the reason why he had been actively seeking Odette Huntington out since their encounter over their train wasn't because of how beautiful she was. Sure it had been like that the first time after they had spoken as he had been taken a back over the drastic transformation that his ugly duckling had undertaken. Odette may not be the ugly duckling anymore but there was something about her, about those blue eyes of her. The ones that lazily rolled her eyes when she thought he said something stupid or that lit up when she was challenging him on something. Those eyes kept drawing him into the girl he had spent the better part of five years teasing. Against his better judgment he wanted to get to know her better. "That is not why I'm standing here duckling."

"Then why don't I believe you? We barely even know each other and you have never spoke to me this much until I came back looking this year. I doubt we'd be having this conversation if I told you that I were born to muggle parents." Odette began and from the moment he heard her say muggle parents, Draco couldn't believe that he had spent wasting his time on someone like her.

"You're a mud–"

"–Muggleborn? Actually no I'm not, whilst my blood status isn't the most important thing in the world to me I'll let you know that I am a pureblood although I'd have no problem with being a muggleborn." Odette said, turning to look at Draco once again, choosing not to react to the amount of venom he had been using in his voice in his previous sentence.

"You wouldn't' mind being like them? You wouldn't have a problem with being a dirty, filthy little mudblood? I was right about you sounding like one of those self righteous and egotistical Gryffindors. You know what? You may not be the ugly duckling anymore but I think preferred you when you were!" Draco snapped in annoyance.

"You call people a lot of names Draco, you call a lot of people that terrible word that you really shouldn't be using it, like Hermione. She's my friend and you call her and other muggles that derogative term that's blood purists like yourself prefer to use instead of the term muggleborn. You call me names but here I am, not calling you anything except your name. I never did anything to you but you chose to call me names but here I am trying to have a conversation to you, hoping that you aren't the boy that everyone says you are. People aren't born hating others, they learn to hate and I wonder who has taught you to hate people who have done nothing to deserve your contempt. There is no difference between them and us Draco, we all practice magic. Just because some of us were born into magical families does not mean we are any better than muggleborns." Odette said and Draco just shook his head in disgust because as beautiful as the duckling may be, she was one of them. The mudblood sympathizers.

"I shouldn't be here." Draco said in a dark manner as he turned around and started to walk away. As much as he way annoyed by this, deep down Draco knew this was a good thing as now that he knew that his duckling was one of them muggle sympathizers, it meant he could walk away from her now and no longer find himself thinking about her.

"So I guess I was right then, you were only talking to me because of the way I look but now your walking away because to you I am just as ugly as I was before because I don't call muggleborns that disgusting name that you call them. Pathetic. For a brief moment I thought that you might not be the boy that everyone says you are, that it was just come kind of act but clearly you are everything and more. I feel sorry for you Draco." Odette retorted and unable to believe that this girl still had a nerve to talk to him in that way Draco found himself turning around. He could see that Odette's cheeks were all red and flustered, she looked furious with him but to Draco, she had never seemed more beautiful. The way her eyes were lit up with fury as she looked at him in disgust. What happened next was clearly the case of whatever Draco had of a heart taking over his head as she strode back over to Odette, stopping right in front of her. As Draco stood and looked at Odette, there was something he wanted to do as specially but Draco knew that he couldn't have his duckling as a distraction, too many things depended on him staying focus on his mission.

"Goodbye Odette."


End file.
